Davies calls for legalised prostitution

AN Oldham Euro-MP has called for prostitution to be legalised and regulated.

Lib Dem Chris Davies wants the House of Lords to throw out legislation that he says would put more women in danger or in prison by further criminalising prostitution.

Tomorrow, the House of Lords is due to consider the Policing and Crime Bill which will introduce new penalties for women involved in sex work as well as their clients.

The law will further criminalise brothels and will concentrate on arresting and rehabilitating street sex workers and their clients instead of on their pimps, violent customers and people masterminding trafficking rackets.

Mr Davies claims the Government have made up statistics and that new laws will drive prostitution underground where there is less safety for the women involved.

He said: “Police resources that could be used to tackle violent men and people trafficking will instead be used to ruin the lives of consenting adults.

“There is something badly wrong with legislation that is more concerned with making the Prime Minister feel morally superior than making women safer and reducing the anti-social side of sex work in local communities.

“Prostitutes should be allowed to work together for their own protection and they should be able to look to the police for help not prosecution.

“The police should be going after men who assault sex workers and people who seek to control their lives, not after women and men who are making a free and consenting choice.”